Zero Dark Thirty

I just saw one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very very long time, Zero Dark Thirty. Very gripping. It was basically a movie that chronicled the 10-year manhunt for bin laden and it went into the nitty gritty details about how it was done. From what I understand, the filmmakers interviewed actual cia operants and even navy seals to better understand how the cia conducts it’s business. In all honesty I get the feeling that a lot of the activity shown in this movie is accurate.

The movie didn’t put america in a very good light, though. In fact, I started getting pissed off watching it. I didn’t know who the fuck to root for. Such evil, everyone in this movie deserved what they got. There should be a special place in hell for people like Maya and her friends. I’m hoping they’ll get shot for crimes against humanity. The movie really blurred the line between who was terrorizing whom.

The problem with wars is that they can easily spiral out of control. The predictability of both the costs and lives of war is notoriously difficult to make. And wars usually ends up being far more costly than what one would initially expect – often by several orders of magnitude. More effort (now and historically) should be devoted to better thinking – a nation’s interests could be furthered more effectively and cheaper (not to mention safer).

Anyway, watch the film, it’s gripping. And for the record, I am resoundly against the torture methods used by the cia.